Riccardo Cassin, born in 1909 in San Vito al Tagliamento in Italy and died on August 6, 2009 in Piani dei Resinelli, was an Italian mountaineer. He is one of the leading figures in the conquest of the great north faces of the Alps in the 1930s.

He was born in Savorgnano di San Vito al Tagliamento in Friuli. When he was only 2 years old, his father, who left to work in Canada, died in an accident in the quarry where he worked. Riccardo then went to live with the rest of his family with his maternal grandfather until the age of 16. He then left to live in Lecco where he worked as a blacksmith's helper and then as a mason. where he discovered climbing and mountaineering and joined the Club Nova Italia around 1930.

He quickly became one of the most important figures in mountaineering during the sixth degree (sestogrado) period before the Second World War. In 1931, he succeeded in opening the Cassin-dell'Oro route at the Corna di Medale in the Dolomites with his compatriot Mario Dell'Oro. It has since become one of the most popular routes in the Alps. In 1934 he achieved the first ascent of the south face of the Cima Piccolissima (Tre Cime di Lavaredo). In 1935, after having repeated the great route of Emilio Comici on the north-west face of the Civetta, he climbed the south-east ridge of the Torre Trieste and, together with Vittorio Ratti, he opened a very difficult route on the north face de la Cima Ovest di Lavaredo, which had turned down 22 attempts in previous years, and which was the last big problem of the place.

In 1937, Cassin turned his attention to the granite of the central and western Alps. He begins the ascent of the enormous northeast face of Piz Badile, accompanied by Ratti and Esposito. After three days of effort and despite the very harsh weather, they finally finished the summit and began the descent down the southern slope of the mountain. Despite everything, the descent remains very difficult because of the weather conditions, and Molteni and Valsecchi end up dying of exhaustion on the side of the mountain. In 1938, Cassin arrived too late for the first ascent of the Eiger north face which had just been climbed by Heckmair, Vörg, Kasparek and Harrer. He therefore fell back on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses and between August 4 and 6, 1938, he made the first of the Walker spur with Tizzoni and Esposito. Before the war, he opened another important route in the Mont-Blanc massif in 1939 on the north face of the Aiguille de Leschaux. While he took part in the reconnaissance expedition the previous year, he was excluded in 1954, for medical reasons, from the national expedition to K2 led by Ardito Desio. According to Georges Livanos, the latter did not want Cassin's famous name rather than his own to be associated with the expedition. In 1958, he led the 2nd Karakoram expedition, which took him to the summit of Gasherbrum IV with Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri. In 1961, he led an expedition to Mount McKinley (Denali, Alaska) which led to the opening of a route on the south face of the mountain and allowed the arrival at the top of each of the members of the expedition. In 1975, he commissioned the exploration of the south wall of Lhotse which failed due to bad weather.

Riccardo Cassin is until his death a manufacturer of climbing and mountaineering equipment. He died in 2009, shortly after celebrating his centenary.

Giusto Gervasutti - Il Solitario Signore delle Pareti

See photos of celebrities before they hit the big-time.

Riccardo Cassin

Self